Solved Puzzle
by Immafan80
Summary: Sometimes when you are solved your pieces get scattered and lost, but sometimes you just need the right people to find them. One Shot Where it's New Years and everyone thinks Riley is completely solved, but in reality; she has a couple pieces that are now missing. RUCAS


Solved Puzzle

I know I have a story that I'm doing, but I thought of this. PLEASE don't take this as a Maya's feelings don't matter story because they do, but I'm kinda doing a Riley centric depressed sad thing. So I will give Maya someone, but you just may not remember him well… Or maybe you do. ;) P.S. This is a Rucas one shot.

Everyone loves a mystery; something that you have to figure out. No one wants a solved masterpiece. They want to fix all the rough edges and then go deeper inside and then solve it. Just like you solve a puzzle, you start on the outside and then work on the inside. A solved puzzle is fun to look at, to mess with a few pieces, but then you know exactly where to put them back because you don't want to taint the full image. I'm Riley Matthews… The solved puzzle.

Some say I overreact. I don't get the guy I like, I go crazy. The thing is, it digs deeper than that. I get bullied sometimes. Even after I confronted her, she decided it would be great to keep making stabs at my life. Most people would be terrified to even mess with me. I have Maya who will do anything for her bestfriend, include confront someone about this. Then I have Lucas, a Texan who will go crazy if he new something was happening to any of his friends. Zay, who probably do all the talking in any situation. Last but not least Farkle, who can out wit anyone at almost any game. Here the thing. The bully knows me. She knows I don't want to tell my friends about my insecurities, it just makes me vulnerable.

So I still have a bully, meddling friends, and a situation where the two best friends like the same guy. Great. But I know Lucas will pick her. That's one of the reasons I pushed them together, because I know eventually that he'll want her. Another reason, which is my main one is that I have had so much happiness in my life and Maya hasn't. Why should I take that away from her? I tried to get Farkle to understand that but no he is giving me a deadline, one I don't think I can make.

I looked down at my phone.

 _You aren't good enough for him. He'll always choose her. She is the exact opposite of you. You're so awful, you made him want to go for something way different. She's more exiting, harder to figure out, she's also prettier. Blonde hair, Blue eyed beauty? Am I right?_

Why won't they just leave me alone? I begged to myself. I looked around the darkness of my room. How can someone with so many people in their life feel so alone. I looked in my mirror. I never had a problem with how I looked. I always thought that Maya and I were both gorgeous in different aspects of our features, maybe my bully is right. She's been right about many things.

I cried in front of the mirror. I sucked it up within a couple minutes. No. I can't be broken. Everyone expects me to be perfect. Maya doesn't have a great at home life, Zay and Lucas both have to deal with missing people in Texas, and Farkle is Farkle and always has something to deal with. I have to stay strong.

I crawled in bed and waited for the next day to come.

I eventually feel asleep and woke up to a beautiful day: New Years Eve. Every year on this day, I wake up excited. It's right before a New Year with endless possibilities, but I wake up to another text.

 _It may almost be a new year but you'll still have to deal with all your problems. I would feel sorry for you, but then I think about the people around you and feel for them more._

I almost start crying again when I stand up, tears clouding my vision. I accidentally knock over my night stand and shatter my vase that was sitting on the side. I next trip and fall directly in the shards. One of my hands and my forearms breaks my fall. Glass invades my skins and burns like hell. I'm starting to cry and become a bloody mess. I can't get up without standing in the glass so I try and brush the glass out my way and walk though the clear path I made. I wipe my tears quickly run to the bathroom. I yell after my parents. No response.

Yeah they had to take Auggie to some New Years Party.

I washed off, cleaned, the best I could. I couldn't open the band aids because of my injured hand.

I need help cleaning up the vase because right now I only have one hand. I know Maya is with her mom doing their tradition that they do every year so I decide to text Lucas.

 _Hey Lucas_

 **Hey Riles. What's up?**

 _Are you doing anything right now? Because I need some help_

 **No my parents are just leaving. What do you need help with? I'm leaving right now.**

 _Don't freak out but I'm minorly injured, bored and my parents are gone._

 **What's your definition of minor? :)**

 _Umm good question._

We had this playful banter until he knocked on my bay window and then opened it.

"What the hell happened?" He asked with a little laugh.

"Riley Super Klutz." I said in a flat tone, "I really can't pick this up because of this."

Showing him my hand and forearm that was wrapped in paper towels, he gasped.

"Crap Riley you said minor," He said crunching over the broken glass in his shoes, "Lets get to the bathroom so I can clean this up."

I rolled over to the other side of the bed and walked on the glass free side.

"I could've picked you up," he said laughing.

"Well you can carry me back in her if you want." I said laughing slightly too.

He asked me to sit on the counter and I used my good hand to help me hop on to the counter. It still made me wince because my forearm was hurt but I was fine overall.

"Should've picked you up then too. Give me your hand first." He said.

We had mindless talk while he worked on my hands. Every once in a while I would wince and he would look at me concerned, but other than that, we had a normal conversation.

"So you know what I want to be when I grow up, what do you want to be?" he said while washing off my forearm.

"I really don't know. I don't have many talents. Maybe therapy or consoling. I haven't put much thought in to it." I said. This is something that I should start thinking about more.

"You are really great to talk to. I can see you being a therapist," he said nodding in approval.

"Thank you. I try to be." I said wincing again as he put the antiseptic on my cuts.

"So how's life? Anyone still messing with you?" He said jokingly.

I tensed up for a moment. He looked at me quizzically.

"Wait someone is really messing with you again?" he said looking at me softly.

"A little, but I'm handling it." I said and truthfully as I could.

"Come here." He said and wrapped his arms around me.

I took in his embrace and sat my head on his shoulder. We sat like this for a while and then he let go and kissed my forehead.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"Can we just relax? I have already had a tough day and it's only like 9 in the morning." I said with a slight airiness in my voice. He threw me over his shoulder just like he promised and softly tossed me on my bed.

I laughed and crawled back under the covers. He got under them next to me.

"Do you wanna watch TV or something?" I asked while reaching over and grabbing my remote.

"How about we play a card game or something?" He asked.

"Okay I got some cards in my nightstand," I said while reaching over.

We set up the game and played for awhile.

"I still think you are looking at my cards," he said while shaking his head.

"Sure like I could see them," I said sarcastically playing the winning play.

"Okay we are done with this. How about that movie?" he said picking up the cards quickly.

"Aww. Is Lucas a sore loser?" I said while pinching his cheeks.

"Stop it." He whined while his cheeks flushed.

I giggled, and he wrapped the cards back into a rubber band and threw them on my night stand.

*Ding*

Ugh. I'm feeling a lot better not now.

We both got silent. I looked at my phone that was turned upside down.

"Here let me check it," Lucas said stretching over me.

"No wait-" but it was too late he already grabbed it.

"Oh it's just a message from Maya." He said looking at it.

"She said that she is bored because her mom had to go run a quick errand and she has to sit in the car." Lucas said while handing it back to me.

"Okay. That's okay." I said nervously. I sent a quick text to Maya.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he said cautiously.

"Not really. It's just hard ya know?" I said looking at my phone again.

"I have all these great people to lift me up, but one person can take the few secure things I have in life and break it down with just a couple texts," I said sadly.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and I relaxed my head to where it was in the crook of his neck.

"Well. What kind of things does she say?" he asked while stroking my hair.

"Normally that I don't deserve you guys. Sometimes about my appearance, and others about my relationships with people." I said longingly.

"Well if anything, we don't deserve you. You are always happy even when you are getting picked on," He said snuggling with me more.

This really isn't helping me with the whole. I need to get over him, but at midnight my secret is out, so might as well enjoy it while I can.

"I sometimes think she's right, you know?" I said and he tensed.

"Why, Riley?" he said. I know he is trying his best not to blow up.

"She makes points and then she brings out examples of me doing it, making them true." I said looking down.

"This is one that I don't mind sharing because it has nothing to do with you. Some do. So this is just about looks not about feelings. I don't want to sound shallow where you think I only care about looks." I said grabbing my phone.

"This was the most recent one." I read over it and modified it a bit.

"They are comparing me to Maya right here so: _You aren't good enough. Everyone will always choose her. She is the exact opposite of you. You're so awful, you make everyone want to go for something way different. She's more exiting, harder to figure out, she's also prettier. Blonde hair, Blue eyed beauty? Am I right?"_ I finished and looked at him.

He was fuming. He took a couple of deep breaths and looked at me.

"See they aren't exactly wrong are they? No because she is the EXACT opposite of me." I said locking my phone.

"They are bending the truth Riley. For one you are more than good enough, and you are not awful. You are amazing, and take this from a guy. Y'all are both gorgeous, but you can't really compare. You two look almost exactly different. You have brown hair, she has blonde, you have brown eyes, she has blue, you have tan skin, and she has pale. You two are so different you guys are just almost impossible to compare to each other." He said talking in a soft, understanding voice.

"Thank you, but it's hard. It went away, but soon as we thought it was over, she came back." I looked up at Lucas.

"She better be happy I don't hit girls because she is tearing you apart and it's not okay with me." He said clenching his fist.

I took his clenched fist and unraveled it. I intertwined our fingers putting it in my lap.

"You took it out on Maya, so now you can take it out on me." He said softly.

"I figured out that taking it out on someone really doesn't solve your problems." I said sighing heavily.

"Maybe this is bigger than us. What if we do need to get adults involved, Riles." He said running a hand through his short hair.

"I'm thinking it's about time too." I said.

"How about we just block her number for now?" he said.

I thought about it and sighed. That's actually a good idea. I went to my settings and blocked her. I got on all my social media and blocked her. This is good.

"Okay and you will always have Maya, Me, or Farkle if she tries to confront you." He said breathing softly.

"Okay we have that problem solved for now," I said laughing lightly, "Anything you want to talk about?"

"Yeah actually." He said looking at our hands that were still together.

"What is it?" I asked running my thumb over the back of his hand.

"I think I'm making a mistake. How do you stop being okay with everything? I tried once not to be and it really didn't solve anything." He said looking at the ceiling now.

"I think you need to have a voice and not let people push you into anything." I said normally.

"Tell me about it," he mumbled, "I think I'm good thank you."

"Will you be here for my party tonight," I asked while unlinking our hands.

"Umm. Yeah." He responded.

"Great," I said while leaning into his shoulder once more.

It's 11:50. Ten minutes till' midnight. I haven't told them about my feelings. I'm by myself, just like Lucas told me I wouldn't be. I only told Charlie. I couldn't keep leading him on, that would be too wrong.

I sit alone for about 5 minutes. I connected eyes with Farkle. He looked over at Maya and Lucas who were talking. I almost said something, but then I heard:

"It's one minute till midnight and I'm glad you are standing here,"

"Wow, that makes up for everthing,"

Well nope I'm running.

"5, 4, 3, 2" I heard the boys counting down.

"RILEY STILL LOVES LUCAS!" I heard Fakle scream, but I was already half way down the stairs.

I ran faster than I could ever think I could. The cold air was burning my lungs, but I kept running. My feet kept aching in these heels, but I kept running. I eventually ended up in the park about 3 quarters on a mile away from my house.

I was out of breath. I was trying to catch my breath when I saw _her_ come next to me.

"You thought blocking me would work," she said laughing evily.

"How did you know where I was?" I said talking a breath in between each word.

"Well I had someone video the whole exchange. I was sitting in a car watching you run here." She said like it like it was okay.

"That's stalking. What did I ever do to you?" I said a little less oxygen deprived.

"You're perfect and I can't stand it. You have a perfect group of friends, a perfect family life, and I thought it was about time you learned how not to be perfect. How about first let us mess up this perfect little face of yours," she grabbed me by the collar and threw me up against a tree.

Guess this'll teach me not to run away from my problems.

She punched me in the eye, and then the lip, but that's when I fought back. I kicked the hell out of her shins until she let me go. I got on top of her and started to wail on her face. This was my first time fighting, so I really don't know what to do, but I do know I wasn't going to let her beat the crap out of me.

She flipped over and got on top of me.

"Oh you decide to fight back that's cute," she said while starting to hit me in the head.

I took my last bit of strength and head butted her. She looked a little dazed and I pushed her hard and ran. I got a pretty good head start and I quickly got lost in the huge New Year's crowd. I started to slow down to a walk. I wiped my face and looked at my hand.

Blood.

I'm bleeding.

Oh yeah and I'm in pain. Adrenaline is a crazy thing, huh?

I grabbed my phone and I saw that Lucas was calling.

"Hello?" I asked kinda in a groggily voice.

"Where are you Riley? We are worried sick. You know what tell me where you are I'm coming to pick you up now." He said quickly.

"I really don't know," I said kinda confused.

"Riley are you okay?" he said confused as well.

"Not one bit. Ok I see Topanga's I have a key, but I need to sit down." I said sticking the wrong key in the hole.

"Don't move Riley. Lock the doors and turn on the lights, okay? We are on our way." He said demanding me softly.

I nodded, like I knew he would see me.

"Riley. You are scaring me stay on the phone until we get there okay."

"Umm hum." I said laughing.

"What happened?" he said sternly.

"Umm. Fight, blood, lost her." I mumbled.

"WHAT? Repeat that please." Ooops. Shouldn't have said that.

"I'll tell you when you get here," I said.

"No I need to know if you are okay," he said softly.

"I'm talking to you aren't I?" I said looking at my nails.

"Yeah we are almost here, okay?" he said soothingly.

"Whose we?" I asked.

"You're parent's and me we went out to look for you and Maya, Farkle and Ms. Katy stayed back incase you came back." He said.

"I'm sorry you had to stay alone with my parents. How bad is my dad interrogating you?" I said gaining some of my awareness back.

"Not bad you aren't found and you were so disoriented like five minutes ago that you couldn't even tell me where you were at." He said.

I was facing the door and I saw my mom, dad, and Lucas walk up to Topanga's. My mom slid the key into the slot and pushed open the door.

They saw my face and gasped.

"Mrs. Matthews can you go get some ice, and a first aid kit?" he said so calm it almost scared me.

"Yes I can. Cory why don't you come with me?" she said waving him over.

"And leave him with her, like that?" he said.

My mom gave him a threatening glance, and he eventually followed her to the back.

"What the hell happened," Lucas said while grabbing some napkins.

"Well I got into a fight." I said like it was obvious.

He chuckled slightly and gently rubbed my lip with the napkin. I winced.

"Okay start from the beginning smart elick." He said while rolling his eyes.

My mom walked in real quick, laid the supplies on the booth we were sitting in, and walked away.

"So I ran all the way to the park. I was still catching my breathe when _she_ came up to me and started explaining how blocking me wasn't going to solve anything and then she shoved me up against a tree. She punched me a couple of times and I kicked her and got on top of her and started to punch her. Then she flipped us over before she could punch me I head butted her shoved her hard and ran. I ran into the big crowd. Then here I am." I said shrugging.

He clenched his fists and then ended up un-clenching them and started to work on my forehead that had a cut.

"I'm so sorry. I promised you that one of us will always be with you and we weren't." he said like he was almost crying.

I grabbed his chin and made him look at me.

"No. Don't think this is your fault. I was the one who decided to run away from my problems when I shouldn't." I said while staring into those beautiful emerald eyes.

I ran my hand over his jaw and then put it back in my lap.

"I'm still sorry." He said and then he took my hand without the cuts and started to doctor up the knuckles.

"You are really good at taking care of stuff like this, Lucas." I said watching him work on my hands.

"Tell me about it. With the amounts of fights I got in because of Zay, I had to learn how to take care of a few cuts here and there. My very last fight I had, someone pulled a knife out on me." He said while bandaging up my knuckles.

I gasped. "Really?"

"Yep and he couldn't get in trouble because truly it was self defense." He said nonchalantly.

He finished me up and I gave him a long hug.

"How you feeling Riley?" My mom said coming out of the back with my dad.

"Better. Thank you Mom." I said hugging her.

"Okay so me and your dad are just going to leave now. You have to be home by 2:30 AM. I trust you will take care of her Lucas, and I assume you guys have a lot to talk about." She said pointedly.

It was 1:30 that gave us at least 45 minutes before we have to leave. Oh boy.

They walked out and an uncomfortable silence fell upon Lucas and me.

"Soo. How about them Knicks?" I said trying to relive some of the awkwardness.

"We have something serious to talk about Riley," he said laughing at first but then becoming stern.

"Yeah the knicks are important. I mean…" I went on for about ten seconds before he put a hand over my mouth.

"Come on, Riley. Is what Farkle said true?" he said after I stopped talking.

"Why do you think I ran? I knew after what happened early today that I wouldn't be able to keep my cool around you. I also can't hurt Maya. I heard what you said to each other. I had to leave," I said looking down in my lap.

"So you still love me?" he asked.

"Umm hum." I said.

"Like a brother?" he asked, again.

"Nope." I said blushing madly, not daring to look up.

This time he grabbed my chin and moved it up so I could look straight into his eyes.

"Hi," he said caressing my face.

"Hey," I said.

He started to lean in our lips brushing against each other's. He started to kiss me. Not like the one I gave him on the subway, but a real deep kiss. I kissed back. We pulled back.

Wait…

"What about Maya?" I said pulling back abruptly.

"Well as soon as your Uncle Josh walked through the door, late. She looked at him the exact way I look at you. I think we got pushed together by peer pressure, and we didn't even consider our feelings. I love her like a sister." He said smiling.

"How do you love me Lucas?" I asked timidly.

"I don't love you," I looked down almost crying at that statement.

"I'm in love with you." He said bringing my face towards his. My smile grew wide.

Sometimes when you are solved your pieces get scattered and lost, but sometimes you just need the right people to find them.


End file.
